"He, the Blessed One, is indeed the Noble Lord, the Perfectly Enlightened One;He is impeccable in conduct and understanding, the Serene One, the Knower of the Worlds;He trains perfectly those who wish to be trained; he is Teacher of gods and men; he is Awake and Holy. "--------------------------------------------"The Dhamma is well-expounded by the Blessed One, Apparent here and now, timeless, encouraging investigation, Leading to liberation, to be experienced individually by the wise. "

Interestingly, the article fails to mention why Steven Hawking feels we only have 1000 years to get off this planet, or indeed why we need to, besides mentioning that it's fragile.

"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta

Space exploration has however been struggling with the global financial crisis and has too proven subject to spending cuts. In particular NASA's planetary science budget, which is seen as crucial to finding habitable planets, was slashed by $300 million this year.

(An imaginary conversation in a boardroom somewhere)

"Please, sir, I would like a few billion to explore space; one day it could help ensure the survival of the human race." "What? You're not living in the real world. Don't you know we are in an economic crisis here?"

Next chap: "Please, sir, could we have 1,000 billion of taxpayers' dollars to go to foreign countries, kill millions of soldiers and civilians, blast their infrastructure back to the stone age, and generally leave the place in ruins?" "No need to ask, of course you can!"

There is no shortage of money or resources. If we stopped killing each other and worked together, we could have a settlement on Mars within a decade or two. It would be a good first step to further exploration of space.

Leave the planet? The cost would be astronomical (pardon the pun). Why not just correct the problems we have here?

To use an analogy, it would be like a super-messy-hoarder deciding to move to another apartment or house after getting fed up with the clutter. Refusing to address the problems, the person would continue with the same defilements and clutter the new place.

Or as another person I know likes to say, 'changing the oven to try and make the food taste better'.

When people become very famous for using their intelligence in one particular area, the media have a tendency to treat everything they say as being worthy of consideration. It happened with Einstein and Bertrand Russell, and happens today to some extent with Richard Dawkins.

I gather that Stephen Hawking is a theoretical physicist of some note, but this doesn't in itself mean he knows anything much about the long-term viability of the planet.

Let's have a symposium consisting of Hawking, George Soros, Garry Kasparov, and Mark Zuckerberg. Then I will decide whether to build a rocket in my back garden.